Ask Me Why I Love You
by DreamerLove15
Summary: "This would be the last time I'd let some silly boy influence my pain." - "I was too busy hoping that someday I'd see that girl again." / When she meets him at seven, she decides to swear off boys. When he meets her at seven, he's head over heels. But when they meet again ten years later, their story begins where it left off with an unexpected twist.
1. Chapter 1: That Dang Red Kite

_Ally_

The things we gain can be big or small. They can be life changing, unexpected, and instantaneous. But personally, for me, I think the best changes are the small ones. The ones we don't really notice at first, but later on realize that, in some strange way, they unknowingly changed us, whether it was all of us or a small part of us.

The higher I climbed that tree, the more the pit in my stomach delved deeper. I wasn't even quite sure why I was climbing, or how I'd actually come this far. I hated climbing. I hated heights. Yet I kept going, eager to retrieve that darn kite. A small chunk of hair fell in front of my face and I blew it out of the way, grabbing onto the next branch and heaving myself up. I felt my arm graze the bark of the tree, probably scraping some skin there, but I _still _kept going. When I finally reached the top, I reached out my arm, grasping for the string that the wind was whipping back and forth. I concentrated harder and gave one least heave, then grabbed it.

"Hey!" a voice called. I felt myself jump in surprise and suddenly I was screaming, falling out of the tree and landing not so softly on the grass with a loud _thump._ Footsteps were quickly running towards me, but I was too busy squeezing my eyes shut in pain, clutching my knee, which now held a giant cut. The person knelt down next to me, breathing a sharp intake at the sight of my knee. I opened my eyes to see who the culprit was, coming face to face with a small blonde boy around my age.

"Hey, you got my kite!" he exclaimed, cheerfully. I glared at him, angered by how oblivious he was being.

"Yeah," I muttered, handing it to him with my free hand. It wasn't even a nice kite; it was wimpy looking, a too bright shade of red that bothered my eyes. Why had I even saved the thing?

"I thought this was a goner," he sighed in relief, happily looking up at his kite. I blinked.

"You're welcome," I snapped, rolling my eyes and beginning to get up, clearly realizing that he wasn't going to help me at all. I dusted off a few leaves in my hair and tried to lean on my good leg. His eyes shifted down to my knee again and he bit his lip guiltily.

"Don't you have a band-aid?" he asked. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Of course, I just carry them around with me in my back pocket," I retorted.

"Oh, well you should probably put one on your knee. It's gushing pretty bad," he suggested. I gawked at him in disbelief.

"It's called sarcasm," I replied, beginning to walk away. Oh no, excuse me, I mean _limp a_way.

"What's that?" he asked, and I whipped around only to find him standing there with that stupid kite and a confused expression on his face. I rolled my eyes, not caring if my vocabulary was a bit expanded and wide range for a seven year old.

"Never mind!" I yelled, absolutely furious. The walk home seemed so long and painful, but not due to the fact that my knee was bleeding. It was more towards the fact that that boy had been so blind to everything. All he cared about was that silly kite. It was just a _kite._ And when I arrived home, trudging through the door, I wasn't sure how to explain to my dad just how I got my injury.

"Ally, what happened?!" he exclaimed, getting up from the dinner table and running towards me, bending down to observe how banged up my knee was.

I folded my arms. "A boy," I mumbled angrily. He stood up quickly, his voice dropping dangerously low.

"A _boy _did this to you?" he asked, and my eyes grew wide as I watched his hands shaping themselves into fists. I shook my head, rephrasing my sentence before he got the wrong idea.

"No, no, not like that, Dad! I was trying to save this boy's kite, and I fell out of the tree while doing it."

His expression immediately softened. "And here I thought some boy was bullying my daughter," he breathed, wrapping an arm around me as he led me to the kitchen. "Let's get you some ice and a band-aid."

I smiled up at him when a thought occurred to me. "Dad?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"What would you have done to that boy anyway?"

He began to laugh, shaking his head. "We'll have this talk another time, honey, when you're older," he answered, sitting me down carefully onto a chair. I nodded and promised myself one thing:

This would be the last time I'd let some silly boy influence my pain.

_Austin_

"You excited, son?" Dad asked. My mom sat in the passenger seat, turning around to send me a bright smile. Those were my parents: always seemingly exuberant beings, constantly radiating happiness. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah, I guess," I said, staring out the window. I was originally going to play video games at my best friend Dez's house, but then my parents ended up not having work and they wanted to do something "family related,"plus my mom thought video games could rot a seven year old's brain. Flying a kite on a day like this, though? Well, it was a perfect idea to her. So that's what we were setting out to do on this bright and sunny day: fly a kite. I tried not to let this dampen my Saturday afternoon. Maybe flying a kite could be just as exhilarating as shooting zombies?

...Who am I kidding?

"We're here!" my mom squealed as we reached the park, filing out of the car and finding a good spot in the field of grass. I looked around. A woman jogging. A man walking his dog. A group of kids playing soccer. Sometimes I forget that my life isn't the only life being lived. There are other people, with their own lives, their own priorities.

"Hold this, will you, Austin?" my dad instructed, handing me the string of the kite as he began to unroll it. Let me tell you: it was a _looooong _string. By the time it was all unraveled, I thought I'd turned eighty. But when that kite floated up to the sky, man...

I felt like _I _was flying. I felt like I could stare at it for hours, the way it hung up there so peacefully, just waving and dancing around with the wind. I wondered what that felt like, to fly. It must feel awesome. But then I heard a cellphone ring. I turned around, and it was my dad, jabbering away at his cellphone again. I felt a pang at my chest. There he was again.

Talking on his cellphone while we were flying a kite.

Talking on his cellphone at my basketball game.

Talking on his cellphone when I asked him if I could get a guitar for my birthday.

He talked more on his cellphone than he did to me. I felt the string of the kite loosen from my hand. Guess I didn't have the strength to really hold it anymore. My mom suddenly gasped, then looked at me guiltily, mouthing an apology. She walked over to me, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Why don't you go get the kite, sweetie? Your dad's just taking a very important work call, that's all," she explained, giving me a comforting smile. I managed to send back a grimace as I ran, my eyes searching for where that red thing could have possibly landed. After five minutes, I found myself standing in front of a tall tree and, to my surprise, when I looked up, a girl was already scaling the dang thing, trying to get my kite back. I looked up at her and suddenly felt the earth move beneath me.

I felt the sky around me, I felt the mist of the clouds, I felt the wind against my cheeks. I felt like I was flying just _looking _at her. Strange pitter patter sensations were occurring in my little seven year old heart, and I wasn't sure what to call them. I forced myself to open my mouth.

"Hey!" I yelled. She looked up in alarm, her eyes growing wide and her cheeks flushing a bright pink. Before I could even take a step forward to help her, she had lost her footing on the tree branch and was sliding down the tree, hitting the grass hard. I ran over to her, my heart beating out of my chest.

Was she hurt?

Did she break any bones?

Had I killed her?

I knelt down next to her and immediately saw her knee. The cut was pretty deep, probably from scraping against the rough bark of that stupid tree, and it was bleeding really bad. Then I noticed that the kite was in her hand.

"Hey, you got my kite!" I said, smiling, although I'm not sure why. I hadn't even wanted to fly the dang thing, yet now here I was, acting like it was my most prized possession.

_Idiot. _

"Yeah," she said, giving it to me. When I looked up at her, her eyes were flashing at me, probably from the pain she must have been feeling from her knee. I racked my brain, hoping to find something that sounded even remotely intelligent.

"I-I thought this was a goner," I stuttered, trying not to stare into her eyes too much. They were brown, that much was clear, but since the sun's rays were hitting them, they were turning an extremely light shade of brown that was making my heart do those weird pitter patter sensations again. She started to get up, combing her fingers through her hair.

"You're welcome," she said, and I rose my eyebrows. I hadn't even remembered saying thank you yet. Guess she was just one step ahead of me. I looked at her knee again, and the blood was starting to increase even more now. I bit my lip in concern, wishing I had some sort of towel or patch on me.

"Don't you have a band-aid?" I asked, worried that if she didn't put one on soon she might die or faint or collapse or _something_, and I don't think I could handle seeing that, not her, not this girl. Then she said that she actually carried them around with her, which not only made me feel much better but it also seemed like a pretty reasonable thing to do, carry around band-aids, I mean.

Maybe I should start doing that.

But then she got this look on her face like she was _irritated_ with me, and she said this word that I didn't recognize because we hadn't learned it yet, at least not in the Second Grade. And then she stomped away, and I stood there for the longest time, watching her walk away while my heart and my ears and my mouth and my entire _body_ buzzed. I don't really remember what happened after that; it was honestly all a blur.

All I remember was that on the car ride back home, I realized that my anger towards my dad had disappeared and been forgotten because I was too busy hoping that someday I'd see that girl again.


	2. Chapter 2: Mimick

_***creepy voice* I'm baaaack. Nah, I'm just messing with you guys! But yes, I am back to write another (hopefully) great story, plus my hands have honestly been itching really badly to write another Auslly story. There have been so many ideas spinning around my head, and I really wanted to try out this one. This story is definitely much different compared to Just Another Cliche, not sexual or anything, the story plot is just VERY different- but in a good, interesting way! I promise to keep you guys on your toes. Anywho. I hope you are all having wonderful school years and getting enough sleep and eating healthy breakfasts and loving yourselves because you ALL deserve it. :) I've just been trying to keep my head high through the stress of senior year- college apps, maintaining my grades, but all in all I'm doing alright. Before we start: HAVE YOU SEEN ALL THE RAURA? So much, I can't even... Okay, let's start.**_

* * *

_Ten years later..._

_Austin_

I sat aimlessly in my bed, strumming mindless melodies on the strings of my guitar. G, C, G, A... The clock read 1:30 a.m. I should have been sound asleep right now, snuggled comfortably under the sheets with my head resting against my pillow. Instead it was one of those nights, for precisely two reasons.

One, they were arguing. Again. It started at around 10:30, just when I had finished my homework. If only our walls were thicker.

"Mike, you promised him you would go to his baseball game. You _promised_," I heard her say, her tone not very pleasant, almost strained. I heard him sigh, slamming a plate into the sink. I waited for the shatter of china, but I guess he hadn't slammed it hard enough for it to break.

"For the last time, Mimi, I had a meeting. They said it was an emergency, David wasn't-"

"I don't _care _about your secretary, we are talking about your son!" she screamed. I closed my eyes, leaning my head against the wall. "It was the end of their season."

"I know," he whispered.

"They won. He hit a home run," she continued, her voice cracking. "And do you know what he did? He looked in the bleachers for his dad, and when he realized you weren't there, he..." There was a pause before she lowered her voice to a volume in which I couldn't make out what she was saying. But it's okay. I didn't need to hear.

I knew what I had done.

"Is he alright?" I heard him ask, his voice growing five notches higher. "Do you want me to talk to him, because I can-"

"No. Not now. He's up in his room, resting. Just leave him be, Mike. The damage is already done."

And that was that. I walked over to my guitar case and pulled out my only escape, and now here I was, four hours later, wondering why I had gone so out of control. I touched the bandage on my forehead, remembering how calmly I had put it on while everyone in the field stared at me, their eyes knitted with deep concern. I remember my mom rushing me out of there quickly, before people started whipping out their phones and posting my breakdown all over the internet, although I'm sure it was already up on Facebook and Instagram.

Thank you Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, right?

Two, her. It would happen every once in awhile, where I'd see something or hear something that would remind me of that day from so very long ago. What was it... ten years now? I'm seventeen, but my heart is still seven. Earlier, before my freak out incident, in fifth period English, we started talking about sarcasm. Dez had shot me a knowing look, and we shared secret smiles.

He knew about the mysterious girl from the past who had saved my kite.

_Sarcasm, a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain._

Yeah. I've shaped up on my vocabulary since ten years ago.

Tonight, I wondered where she was. What she looked like now. What she was doing. And I wondered, like I always do, whether or not I'll ever see her again. Because a lot has changed. I've changed. But maybe she can help me become me again. Not this person. I don't know who he is. I don't know who I _am_.

* * *

The sound of my guitar slipping off my bed and hitting hard against the wooden floor jolts me awake. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and stare at the clock. 7:35 a.m.

Shit.

There's a knock at my front door, and I already know who it is.

"Mr. Moon?" a soft voice called. I sighed in annoyance, quickly grabbing a shirt off the floor that looked clean... sort of.

"Yeah, Matilda, I know, I'm awake," I replied, checking myself in the mirror.

"Do you still want me to make breakfast, Mr. Moon?" she asked. To put it in brief terms, Matilda was our... maid? House cleaner? Slave? I'm not sure what the proper modern term is nowadays, but all I know is that she does our laundry, tidies up the house, and helps make meals.

"There's no more time, I'm going to be late," I snapped, pulling on a pair of jeans. I stopped in front of the mirror to check myself. Slightly disheveled blond hair, check. Same old hazel eyes, check. Bloody bandage on my forehead that needed to be changed...

I ripped it off, muttering a curse word as I waited for the momentary painful throbbing to pass. When it did, I threw away the band-aid, grabbed my backpack and car keys, and opened my bedroom door, only to find Matilda standing there with a small brown paper bag. I inhaled, sending her a small grateful smile.

"You say you're not hungry, but I know you will be," she scolded, handing me the bag. "Pancakes, your favorite." She fixed my hair, patting down the strays.

"Thanks, Matilda," I said, running down the flight of stairs.

"Oh, Mr. Moon, you forgot to-"

But I was out the door, jumping into my car, and revving the engine. I turned on the radio, cranking it up, searching for some decent tunes. I checked the time again. 7:40. I had five minutes. I pressed my foot harder against the pedal, praying that a cop wouldn't catch me at the moment.

I had enough problems.

Luckily, the heavens heard me and I safely screeched my way into the school parking lot. I walked smoothly onto the campus right as the bell rang, letting out a giant breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding in. Right on time. I didn't notice until I was walking down the halls.

People were staring. They were on their little iPhones, looking at the brightly lit screen and then staring up at me with pained expressions. Some were blunt, shaking their heads at me. Others felt guilty and quickly looked down. I gulped. Suddenly someone grabbed me by the arm and dragged me down a different route. I turned around and sighed in relief.

"Jesus, Dez, you scared me," I said.

He handed me his phone, folding his arms and pursing his lips together, his mouth forming one hard line. I stared at him for a little bit, then gave in and clicked the video. I watched it, then paused, handing it back to him.

"What were you thinking?" he asked, flailing his arms. That's Dez for you, always gesticulating past his bubble. "You could've gotten seriously hurt, you could've been sent to the ER, you could've-"

I placed both of my hands on his shoulders, hoping the gesture would bring him back down to earth. "Dude. I'm fine," I reasoned, shrugging my shoulders. "It was nothing."

"Nothing?! You-"

"Just forget about it. Before we know it, this whole thing will blow over," I said, then began to head to my locker. But as I spun the dial, it was clear that Dez was far from done.

"Austin, you can't just go around doing things like that. People are saying all _kinds_ of stuff about you right now, and I don't know what to say!" he exclaimed.

"Say nothing," I replied, taking out my Calculus textbook.

"It's not that simple," he said, then pondered the thought for a moment. "Unless..." He got a mischievous look on his face, and before I could stop him he whipped out his camera. I swear, he carried that thing with him everywhere.

Even to the bathroom.

"Dez-"

"The Fall of the Moon: A Hard-hitting Documentary!" Dez exclaimed excitedly. I laughed.

"Dez, we are not making a documentary about-" The back of my head hit a figure, and I heard books fall to the floor. I turned around, watching a girl gather her things quickly, trying to grab all the books and stack them back on top of one another. I knelt down to get the last one but she went off on me.

"I got it," she snapped, and I narrowed my eyes curiously at her, carefully getting back up.

"Okay..." I said. "Just trying to help."

Once she had everything back in her arms again, she stood up, and that's when I got a good look at her. I searched every inch of her face, and when I got to her eyes, I nearly went insane. She frowned at me, then looked at my forehead, her frown only deepening.

"Don't you have a band-aid?" she scoffed, turning on her heel and continuing to walk down the hallway.

So _that's _what I'd forgotten.

I stood there in a complete daze and didn't snap out of it until I realized Dez was waving his hand in front of me. I blinked.

"Hey, man, are you okay?" he asked. I opened my mouth and felt this sudden need to let a flood of sentences come out, but the only two words I could come up with were:

"It's her."

_Ally_

Our boxes were packed. My walls had been stripped bare of all its posters, academic achievement awards, and picture frames. When the last piece of furniture had been hauled out of the house and into the moving van, it had almost felt like someone ripped my heart out of my chest. I wasn't ready to leave.

I didn't _want _to leave.

I checked my phone one last time for any signs that my friend Kennedy was coming, but we'd both said our goodbyes last night. We'd practically bawled in her room, complaining about how it was so unfair that I was leaving smack dab in the beginning of our senior year. She'd been my only friend, the only one who understood me, who was really there for me when I needed her the most.

How was I going to find another Kennedy?

And now I sat stubbornly here in the back of the car, while my parents sat in the front, my dad at the wheel and my mom in the passenger seat. He only had one hand on the wheel because the other one was too occupied holding my mom's hand. I wanted to gag.

We passed what seemed like the thousandth sign that claimed that we were almost there, almost reaching the deadly destination of Miami, Florida. My original home that certainly wasn't going to feel like home. We had fifty miles remaining, and to be honest, my angry teenage stomach was feeling mighty empty at the moment. But I didn't feel like opening my mouth and asking for us to stop by a fast food place. I waited patiently, hoping my dad would soon realize that he, too, was getting hungry. It was already 9:30 p.m., after all.

When he made a turn for the next gas station slash McDonalds I smiled, relieved that I hadn't had to say a word. He just knew. We all stepped out of the car and I walked ahead of them, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jacket.

"What did you want, Ally?" he asked me, but I ignored him, scanning the menu for myself. I wasn't seven anymore, I could figure out what I wanted to order on my own.

"Is it still the ten piece chicken nuggets meal?" my mom guessed, and I gritted my teeth, hating that she was right. I hated how she still remembered, even though the last time she'd gone to McDonalds with me to order something had been over eight years ago. I flashed my eyes at her, and her smile faltered.

I stepped up to the cashier and muttered my order softly, just enough for him to hear it but not _her_. Then I went into the bathroom, making up an excuse that I had to wash my hands, although my dad knew that I carried hand sanitizer with me at all times. I took a moment to lean against the sink and take a deep breath. I felt like I was going to hurl. I wasn't sure if I could do this.

If I _wanted _to do this.

I looked up and was startled to find my reflection. I hadn't realized there was a mirror in front of the sink. I must be more out of it then I think. Staring back at me was a pale figure with bland brown hair and weary eyes. I didn't recognize her. I tried lifting up the corners of my mouth to form a smile, even if it wasn't real. There. That was much better. I decided to run my hands under cold water, just for precautionary measures so that _she _didn't catch me in a lie, even if it was a small one.

When I came back out, they were already sitting at the table with our orders on a tray. They were talking closely, then broke away when I sat down. For a moment the only sounds that could be heard were my teeth chewing a piece of my chicken nugget. Finally she cleared her throat.

"So Ally, honey, are you excited to be back home?" she asked.

"Yeah, honey, we get to live near the beach again!" my dad exclaimed. I swallowed before looking up at them with a blank expression. There were those faltering smiles again. I shrugged my shoulders, taking another bite of my nugget.

"Well," my mom began, "I don't know about you two but it feels so good to be back." She let out shaky breath. "We get to be a family again."

I paused, mid-breath, carefully putting down my nugget.

"A family," I repeated. The tension in the air hung thick. "Right."

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"You start school tomorrow," my dad cut in, trying to sweep away my obvious anger.

"Great," I replied, sipping my lemonade.

"You have to meet the principal in the morning and get your schedule personally from him. He wants to talk to you about your previous academic achievements, maybe get you going with the Mathletes and-"

"No," I bluntly stated. His eyebrows rose.

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me, Dad. I said no," I stated, and for a moment I felt guilty. I'd never talked to him this way before, but I was just so _done _with everything.

"Ally, honey, if you're mad at me, then direct your anger towards _me_. But please, don't disrespect your father," my mom sighed, folding her hands tightly together. I let out a bitter laugh.

"You think this is about anger?" I asked. "You think that you can just waltz back into our lives and pretend that you never left, right?" I tried to fight back the tears. "I did ballet recitals. I was voted Most Likely to Succeed."

"Honey, I know. I know I wasn't there for all those incredible accomplishments, but please, not here-"

"Of course. Not here, not there... well if we're never going to talk about it, then that's fine with me," I said, getting up from my seat and throwing away the rest of my food, trying to not think about all the starving kids in Africa that would have gladly eaten the rest of my chicken nuggets. I wanted to home, but I didn't even know where that was anymore.

* * *

Things would have simmered down except on the way back ho- I mean, our new house, we passed by that _tree_. And then some more anger slipped inside of me.

_"Don't you have a band-aid?" _

The nerve of that boy! He hadn't even had the sincerity to help me up, to offer to walk me home, or even to say he was sorry. I had saved his little red kite, the least he could have done was thank me. I was seven. I had learned manners by that age. Clearly, he hadn't.

The tree looked exactly the same, and the anger I felt towards it blazed just as bright as it had before. I wondered where that boy was now. I hoped for his sake that he'd earned some common sense and that his vocabulary increased. Being back here wasn't exactly off to a great start.

* * *

I'd forgotten how hot Miami was. I tugged at the neck of my sweater. The only coolness I could feel were the occasional slits in my jeans. The campus was pretty self explanatory. The principal seemed okay. Not too lenient, but not too strict either. He was right in the middle, which was alright with me. What wasn't alright with me, however, was the amount of books they were making me carry around before they could find me a locker.

In my hands, I held a big stack of AP English, AP Statistics, Physics Honors, AP Government... all in all it was a lot of hard work, but I wasn't too worried. Academic achievements, remember? But I'm just going to stay on the down low here. I'm not going to be the super nerdy girl or the outgoing popular or the star athl-

"Oh, man!" someone yelled, and my books flew out of my arms. Great. Just my luck. I sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear as I bent down to reassemble the books, my mood for the day already dampening. The offender stooped as well, reaching to get the last book, but something inside me snapped.

"I got it," I practically yelled, my temper flaring. I placed the book on top of the others, grabbed them, and stood up, coming face to face with two boys: one was blond and the other a coppertop. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

Boys.

The main cause of all my problems, even back when I was seven with that stupid kite. This is why I don't talk to them, think about them, like them, or become friends with them, for that matter.

Feminist? Man hater? That's me.

"Okay, just trying to help," the blond one mumbled, and for a moment he was staring at me quite intensely, his eyes narrowing and the tips of his ears growing red.

It was creeping me out.

Then I turned my attention to his forehead, which had pretty deep gash in it and was bleeding. I felt my face scrunch up in distaste.

"Don't you have a band-aid?" I asked, then quickly shut my mouth, surprised that I had mimicked the very words I'd despised all my life. Embarrassed, I turned around and shook my head at myself. It wasn't until I reached my first period that I realized my words weren't the only things mimicked.

That boy had been blond, too.

* * *

_**Dun dun duuuun! They meet again! But man, have things changed. Austin's gone bezerk and Ally's a man hater. What was Austin's mental breakdown? Why is Ally so mad at her mom? Feel free to leave a review and let me know what you think of this chapter, the story as a whole, and what you think is going to happen next! I LOVE YOU GUYS, STAY RAURALICIOUS. ...Yeah, I don't know what I just did there either, let's ignore that. :)**_


	3. Chapter 3: The Truth Is

_**Hello lovelies! I hope you're all having an amazing day, week, um... life? Lol, anywho, I'm thinking I'm going to be updating during the weekends because Saturdays and Sundays are my only free writing times. Trying to balance everything, I guess. Thank you so much for reviewing, you guys, they literally brighten my day, as well as my mood. You're all so very sweet and honest, I REALLY appreciate it. I'm glad this story is getting good feedback. Alright, here we go, Chapter 3... P.S. Who else is excited for the What Ifs and Where's Austin (I believe that's the title) episode?! I've been waiting SO FRIKKEN LONG for them to do an episode like this. Just watch, it's going to be jam packed with Auslly, yaaay! Okay, rant over, here we go...**  
_

* * *

_Ally_

I sit quietly in my seat, my eyes carefully scanning every inch of my new English class. It seems pretty typical: posters with famous Shakespeare quotes, the occasional reminder on how to always be grammatically correct. So I was pretty much in shock when James Bond walked through the door.

Okay.

So he wasn't _really _James Bond, but I know a good looking teacher when I see one. I noticed the aura in the room immediately change, the girls in their seats fidget with their skirts, adjusting their hair, making sure every strand was in place. I snorted, rolling my eyes, until something caught my attention. I tuned my eavesdropping skills and decided to put them to the test.

I eyed two boys who were hunched over their desks, badly hiding a cellphone underneath their backpacks as they watched a video. I craned my neck, trying to get a better view, and my eyes bulged as I watched the blond boy I had seen earlier stand in the middle of what appeared to be a baseball field. A ball was clearly flying towards him at a really fast speed, and everyone was screaming at him, telling him to move out of the way.

But blondie just stood there. The weirdest thing was that he _knew_. He knew that ball was coming towards him, yet he stood there, still as a stick. And then _wham_! It hit him square in the forehead, and he staggered backwards, his eyes blinking rapidly and a thin stream of blood beginning to trickle down before he immediately fell down. The entire crowd, even the coaches and players on the field, went completely quiet. A woman, also blond and probably his mom, soon rushed onto the field, helping him up to his feet and practically dragging him out of there.

The two boys watching the video snickered, shaking their heads.

"What a weirdo," one of them hissed.

"I always knew Moon was kinda nuts in the head," the other one cackled. I narrowed my eyes at them, suddenly feeling the need to defend blondie. Sure, he'd bumped into me earlier, but it hadn't been on purpose. I opened my mouth to speak up, but then James Bond started talking.

"Summer's over, guys," he announced, picking up an Expo marker as he turned around to scribble his name onto the white board.

_Mr. Benson_

I shrugged my shoulders. Benson, Bond. I was close.

"We're gonna play a little ice breaker, I'm sure you seniors aren't too old for those, right?" he asked. Everyone groaned, including me. "Just tell us your name and the most exciting thing you did this summer, starting with..." His eyes landed on me, and I gulped. "...you."

He looked down at his role call sheet. "Ms. Dawson, is it?" he said, looking back up at me. Twelve pairs of envious girls' eyes were staring at me, but to be honest, I would have gladly switched places with any of them. The spotlight just isn't for me. "Go ahead."

I tried to ignore the sudden attention, tried to steady the loud pounding in my chest. "I'm Ally," I blurted out, then slowed down my words. "The most exciting thing I did this summer was..."

I moved away from the only place I'd ever really called home.

I no longer have a best friend.

My parents are back together but for all the wrong reasons.

"...I went swimming a lot."

The class laughed, but thankfully not at me. I felt relieved to know that everyone else had had uneventful summers. But even when my turn was over and the girl behind me started explaining how she'd traveled to Nebraska to visit her grandparents' farm, I felt that familiar itch crawling beneath my skin, an itch that I got after I told a lie. I tried to brush it off, reassuring myself that it was for the best.

The truth is, no one wants to know how my summer went. Not my James Bond teacher, not even the school counselor. And the thing about the truth is that sometimes the truth is better left unsaid.

* * *

I spun the dial on my lock, taking a breather. Two periods down, four more to go.

"Hey, are you-"

I jumped, quickly turning around, my shoulder blade slamming my locker door shut. A short, curly haired girl looked at me with alarmed eyes as I rubbed my shoulder in pain.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you..." she said, chuckling a bit. I glared.

"Do you always laugh at people in pain?" I snapped, turning around to, once again, spin in my combination. The numbers fuzzed up in my brain, and I sighed in frustration, racking my brain for the combo.

"4-32-9," the girl spoke up. I slowly turned my head, raising my eyebrows.

"How did you know that?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders, crossing her arms.

"I'm observant," she said. I stared at her. She sighed in defeat.

"Okay, so I might have watched you while you were spinning in your combo, but hey, that still counts as observant, right?" she asked. I rolled my eyes, returning my attention back to my lock. "I'm Trish."

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to tell you my name and then we eat lunch together and become BFFs?" I guessed. She laughed.

"Only if you want to," she replied. I chewed my lip, debating the pros and cons.

Pros: I could talk to someone and actually have a friend here. I could have someone to hang out with during brunch and lunch. And maybe she wouldn't be a Kennedy, but she could be a Trish, and maybe a Trish was the next best thing.

Cons: If we got too close, she'd want to know more about me, about my life. She'd want to come over and have sleepovers at my house and my parents would eventually want to meet her. I'd have to explain to her about... well... _everything_. And did I really want to do that?

It was one of those moments where the path literally divided into two different roads. Now I just had to decide which road to step on.

"How is the lunch around here?" I asked, actually cracking a small smile. She let out a loud laugh, something I knew I'd have to get used to. And the truth is, I'd rather have the next best thing than be bitter alone. Maybe it could be fun being bitter with someone else.

_Austin_

My knee kept shaking up and down. I couldn't. Sit. Still. It was her. I was positive. Those eyes... I'd recognize them anywhere. I couldn't stop replaying the moment over and over in my head. And the fact that her words still stung the air, still as feisty as ever.

Yeah. It was her for sure. And a million questions were already jogging through my brain.

Why was she back here?

Would she be staying here permanently?

What grade was she in?

What was her _name_?

I'd practically lifted Dez into the air out of pure joy after I saw her, and he flailed his arms, completely confused. I quickly put him down.

"Why so happy?" he asked, straightening his rainbow striped cardigan. Dez was always, how do you say, excessively overdressed.

"That's her! That's the girl!" I yelled, a smile wide on my face. His eyeballs nearly bugged out of their sockets as he did a happy dance with me, which involved a lot of not-very-manly twirling and bouncing.

"Wait," he said, suddenly frowning.

"What?" I asked breathlessly, stopping my bouncing.

"So if that's her, then... why didn't she recognize you?" he asked.

I pondered the thought for a moment before coming up with a perfectly reasonable answer. "Clearly this handsome face doesn't compare to my seven year old chubby phase," I said, sending him a smoldering look to clarify my theory. Dez nodded his head, tapping his chin.

"Or, she's got amnesia and can't remember anything for longer than five seconds!" he suggested, the light bulb going off above his head. I blinked.

"Yeah. That's totally it, Dez," I deadpanned, shaking my head. Now here I was, sitting in class, anticipating for the bell to ring so I could look for her. So I could talk to her. But more importantly...

So that I could finally thank her for not only saving my kite, but my heart.

* * *

"Do you see her?" I asked quietly under my breath to Dez as we moved down the lunch line. Today's menu consisted of patty burgers and milk- almost enticing except for the fact that the patty kinda looked like dead road kill.

Dez shook his head sadly. "Nope, not a single red head in the house."

I stopped in my tracks. "Dez, she's a brunette," I stated. "_You're _the red head."

He brightened. "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed, happily chugging down his burger. I stuck out my tongue.

"How can you eat that stuff?" I asked.

"It tastes like heaven to me," he replied, taking another bite. I turned my attention away from him and scoured through the many faces sitting in the cafeteria until my eyes landed on one in particular. I felt my breath hitch, my heart beat instantly grow faster.

"Dez," I whispered. "I found her."

And then I felt myself floating my way towards her, my feet gravitating themselves closer to her, almost like I was having some kind of out of body experience. But I also got beat to it because some other guy reached her by a millisecond earlier, and Dez and I were forced to simply sit at the nearest table. I strained my ears, trying to catch snippets of their conversation.

"Hey," the guy said, and I knew him well enough to know that he was a nice guy, but tended to be a sleaze around girls.

_My _girl looked up at him and gave him a bored look. I nearly burst out laughing, but I tried my best to be at ease. The guy leaned against the table, more importantly he leaned into her, which made me want to sock him in the face.

"It's Ally, right?" he asked. "You're in my English class."

The name rung around me, like music to my ears.

_Ally. Ally. Ally. Ally and Austin. Or better yet, Austin and Ally, _I thought to myself, then questioned whether I really was going insane.

"Great," she muttered. I noticed that she wasn't sitting alone. Next to her sat Trish, the loud mouth of the century. What was _she _doing with Ally?

"I'm Jared," he smirked, holding out his hand. She ignored it, and I could tell his master plan was beginning to take a painful crash. "I'm having a party at my place this Friday. You should come."

She took a sip from her water bottle before sending another chill of icy words his way. "I don't attend parties."

He shoved a hand weakly into his pocket. "Oh," he replied. "Well... how about a date, then?"

She looked up at him and sent him a dirty look. If looks could kill, he would be buried deep in his grave right now. "Not interested," she said. "Come on, Trish."

The two walked away, and I watched in amazement at how devastated Jared looked. He locked eyes with me and frowned.

"What are you looking at, Moon?" he spat, then angrily walked away in another direction. I laughed, leaning back in my chair.

"Well at least Jared is out of the way," I sighed, smiling. Dez shot me a blunt look. "What?"

"Jared is the least of your problems," Dez said. "What you need to worry about is _her_."

I was still lost. Ally, the girl I'd fallen in love with ten years ago all because of some stupid kite and a tree. Why should I be afraid of her? "Dez, what are you talking about?" I asked, stealing one of his tater tots.

"I've heard some things," he said, leaning closer to me and lowering his voice. "She seems really, you know, bitter."

"Well, that much is obvious," I snorted. "So what?"

"And Jared isn't the only guy she's told off. She did it in second period, too, and brunch. And third, and fourth," Dez replied, and for once, _I _didn't understand what he meant, not the other way around.

Dez sighed. "She doesn't like boys," Dez stated.

My heart dropped. "You mean she's a lesbian?!"

"No!" Dez yelled, causing a few people to stare our way, so he lowered his tone again. "She's kinda... well... a man hater."

I stared at him for awhile before cracking up. I mean, come on, a _man hater_? I'd heard of the term but I'd always thought it was just some temporary phase girls went through after a bad break up. Then I realized that Dez's face hadn't fazed at all and that's when my laughter stopped and my heart really _did _drop. I buried my face in my hands and groaned.

Because everyone knows that falling in love with a girl who can't even stand being near you is an impossible case. Even _Dez _knows that. But this couldn't be the end. She was back in Miami. She was here again, and I wasn't going to lose her, not this time. There had to be a light at the end of the tunnel, a beacon of hope.

A plan slowly began to form in my head. "Find out what you can about her from other people: where she's from, why she's back here, all the good stuff," I said. "In the mean time, I'll try to find a way to get near her without her biting my head off."

Dez saluted at me. "Yes, sir."

I nodded in return, her name still echoing in my head.

_Ally._

* * *

**_Alrighty, that is the end of Chapter 3! I am literally smiling because I love writing in Austin's point of view, making him feel all gushy about Ally, and then switching to Ally's point of view, where she has absolutely no idea that Austin is completely IN LOVE with her. I loved reading your guys' guesses on what Austin did to himself, mainly hitting himself in the head with a bat. At first, that's actually what I thought about making him do, but then I decided on him simply letting harm come upon himself. So! Feel free to leave a _ _me- either is fine! I luuuurve you guys, and- oh yeah- hope you all had a safe Halloween! What did you dress up as? I went as the Grudge and scared the crap out of everyone at my school. ;)_  
**


	4. Chapter 4: Think Fast

_**GUYS! I've missed you all so much, I don't know if any of you feel the same lol but I have! Sorry I've been away for so long and haven't been able to update on Ask Me Why I Love You or do Auslly one shots in general. My computer was down for awhile, and I just recently got it fixed. Hopefully you'll still bear with me! Anywho, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and had a good time with your family! Here we go, Chapter 4! But before we begin, I just want to say that there is literally going to be a GIANT twist in the story, and it's not meant to offend anyone or cause a riot. It's based off of an episode of this show I watched awhile back. **_

* * *

_Austin_

Baseball practice was the last place I wanted to be after my breakdown, but I couldn't let the team down. Even if I technically already had. Dirty looks were thrown my way by nearly every single guy in the locker room as I walked down the aisle. I sighed, shaking my head. Clearly this mess couldn't be easily cleaned up.

"Agh!" someone screamed. I looked up in alarm, only to see Elliot reenacting my freak out on the field. His usual crowd around him laughed and slapped him on the back, hooting to their hearts' delight. My fists balled up and I felt my heart pounding as I walked up to them. Elliot's face fell as soon as he saw me approaching, and it was soon replaced with a smirk.

"Speak of the devil," Elliot chuckled. The guys around him grew silent. So much for team mates. I'd invited these guys to my house and fed them freaking pizza and this is how they repay me? By mocking me? "Going a little nuts, huh Moon?"

I gritted my teeth, trying to calm the anger that was overwhelming me at a fast rate. "I don't mind being nuts. At least I'm not a dick wad like you."

His face grew hard at my harsh words as he stopped forward, a vein popping out near his temple. I pulled back my sleeves, ready for whatever blow out was about to occur, but then Coach blew his whistle and the fuse fizzled out. Elliot quickly backed away, putting on his innocent face, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Now _I _was the bad guy.

"Moon," Coach Jett barked. I sighed, following him to his office. I took a seat at his desk while he paced back and forth, fiddling with his whistle. I turned around, watching the team going back to their usual routine, opening their lockers and putting on their jerseys and shoes. Without me. I'd never felt more alone in my life. "What am I going to do with you?"

I turned my attention back to Coach and grimly shrugged my shoulders. The cut in my forehead now seemed more prominent and aching than ever. Last night was a mistake. I shouldn't have done that in front of so many people.

"What kind of answer is that?" Coach asked. I had no words. I felt empty. "Look." I tilted my head upwards at the change in his tone, softer and gentler. "You're a great player, Austin. One of the best on the team, and you know I don't play favorites."

I smiled, nodding my head.

"But... maybe you need to take a break. I know you've got some issues with your dad..." He trailed off and I felt my stomach clench. A break from the team? But it was Junior year. Scouts would be coming to watch the upperclassmen play. They'd start making lists for possible players that deserved scholarships. For players that held potential in playing in the Leagues. I wanted that. I needed that. Most importantly, why wasn't I opening my mouth and saying all of this?

"Okay." One single word that tumbled out my mouth, showing that I was accepting defeat. This was the end. I almost turned around and expected Dez to be there with his camera, capturing this scene to add as a clip for The Fall of the Moon.

Coach nodded, sending me a reassuring smile as I limply got up from my seat. "This'll be good for you, Austin. Trust me. When you're ready to play again, then come talk to me."

I numbly nodded, heading towards my locker to empty its contents. My helmet. My jersey. My shoes. All stuffed and tucked away into my gym bag. I could feel the whole team watching me. I zipped up my bag and headed towards the door.

"We're better off without him." I didn't have to turn around to know who that was. The tips of my ears grew hot as I slammed the door shut. Banned from a place where I actually felt like I somewhat belonged. Like I somewhat had people to look after me. Now I had nothing.

"Austin!" a voice called, and I looked up to find Dez running towards me. My chest grew a little lighter. I guess I wasn't completely alone.

* * *

"Tell me what you know," I said as we took a seat at our usual table at The Sub. Sandwiches were kinda our thing. Dez let out a big sigh, settling his camera down onto the table before leaning back in his chair, shaking his head. "Is it that bad?"

He looked up suddenly. "What? No, I'm just shaking my head at the fact that you just sat in a chair with ketchup on it."

"What?!" I yelled, getting up from my seat. Great. Red butt stain. As if this day couldn't get any worse. I frowned, sitting back down. "Never mind. So what did you find out about Ally?"

Dez looked around to make sure the coast was clear, then leaned towards me. "She just moved here from Atlanta. She's living with her parents. It used to be just her and her dad, but now her mom's in the picture, too."

"Hm..." I took this moment to take a bite out of my sandwich. Through a full mouth I asked, "What about the whole man hater thing? Did you get any confirmation on that?"

Dez shook his head, frowning. "I got zip on that. Guess you'll just have to find out for yourself." He nodded his head at the counter and I instantly began to feel my palms sweat. The hawk was in the building.

...Ally was here.

With that curly haired Latino girl. I watched them both tell their order to the cashier, then take a seat that happened to be right across from us. This was my chance. The sunlight to this rainy day was just a couple feet away from me.

Why was I making so many weird analogies?

I shook my head, trying to focus on the situation at hand. I cleared my throat, looking at Dez for encouragement. He shot me a wide smile and a thumbs up. I took a deep breath, getting up from my seat and walking over to their table. Trish took one look at my shoes and started choking.

"Austin Moon," she said, gagging on a bite of her footlong wheat bread. I bit my cheek to keep myself from laughing. Ally, on the other hand, continued eating her sandwich like I wasn't even there. I cleared my throat once more, hoping to catch her attention.

Still didn't seem to do the trick.

"Ow!" she cried out, shooting Trish a glare for some strange reason. She looked up at me and I nearly fell over. Those brown doe eyes. Her wavy hair. I wanted to hug her, to see if her knee still had a scar, to ask her if she still remembered that day that we met. Instead she sent me an icy stare. "What?"

I gulped. Clearly I hadn't thought this plan through well enough. My throat was closing in on me. What was I supposed to say to her? _"Hey, do you remember me?"_ What if she didn't? She might think I was just some creep. By the way she was looking at me, her thoughts were already heading down that road anyway. I had to do something fast. Before I could stop myself, I placed my hand on one hip and shot her a big smile.

"Hey girl!" I exclaimed. Dez's jaw dropped to the floor. Trish's eyes grew wide. Ally, on the other hand, smiled. She was _smiling_. I felt my heart soar. Success!

If Ally hated guys, then I guess I'd just have to become one of the girls.

_Ally_

"I don't do parties," I said, shrugging my shoulders. I sat on the carpet of Trish's room, which, to my surprise, was strangely neat and highly well decorated. Then again, I honestly didn't know her well enough to judge her room yet. The bedspread was all cheetah print. Her bookshelf was filled with an array of How-To-novels, ranging from How-To-Master-Origami to How-To-Train-Your-Lizard.

"Your lizard?" I'd asked when we first entered. She let out a small laugh.

"I was ten. That was when I was going through my reptilian phase," she explained. I nodded like that wasn't the weirdest thing in the world. Which it totally was. School wasn't too horrible, not with Trish by my side. I was really beginning to like her spunk and heavy sarcasm. She may be small, but what she lacked in height she made up in ferocity. The invitation to hang out at her place after school had been subtle yet friendly enough to reel me in. Dad was glad that I was already making fast friends. Mom was too, but her opinion didn't really matter to me. No one's did these days.

"Jared Welsh just invited you to his party of the year and you're going to turn it down, just like that?" she asked, scanning her rack of nail polish, a colorful collection placed along her desk where textbooks should have been.

"Party of the year?" I echoed, amused. "Seriously? What, is there going to be some rad DJ and a celebrity appearance?"

Trish blinked and I shifted in my seat, wondering if I'd said something wrong. Then she smiled and I felt a rush of relief. "It's not that. It's just... I've never met a girl who would turn down an invitation by the second hottest guy in school."

"The _second_?" I asked, watching as she decided on a bright red color. She uncapped the small square bottle and began to paint.

"The first is Austin Moon." The way she said it made it seem like everyone should know this, like it was some fact that could be looked up online or in the dictionary. Moon. The name seemed to ring a bell. I recalled the two boys from earlier in the week in my English class.

"Is he the blonde that had a break down?" I asked. Trish stopped painting her nails, lowering the brush back inside the bottle. Her face grew sad.

"You heard that, too?" I nodded. She sighed. "You could always tell that underneath all that blonde hair there was something eating him up inside."

I rolled my eyes. What could possibly be eating him up so bad? He broke up with his girlfriend? He lost his hair gel? "Oh, please. I'm sure he just had one of his moments."

She stared at me for a long time before taking the brush back out of its bottle to continue painting her nails. "Yeah, I guess." Then she asked something that made me grip onto the hairs of the carpet. "How about you? Got a boyfriend?"

I grimaced. "I don't believe in that stuff."

She nearly spilled her bottle of nail polish as she whipped her head towards me. "You don't believe in having a boyfriend?"

I tucked a stray hair behind my ear before looking up at her in her seat. "I don't believe in love." There. I said it. I told her. I told _someone_.

She capped the nail polish bottle. "You still have three more to paint," I said, nodding my chin towards her middle, ring, and pinky finger.

"Never mind that," she replied, quickly taking a seat next to me on the carpet. "What do you mean you don't believe in love? Who doesn't believe in love?"

_People who have seen the good side of it and not the bad. _"Me, I guess," I answered instead. I couldn't tell her. Not yet, at least.

"But why not?" she pleaded. She almost looked sorry for me. "Ally, everyone believes in love."

"Everyone but me," I snapped, then lowered my tone. "Another time, okay?"

She placed a hand lightly on my shoulder. "Of course," she said. Her face lit up. "Have you been to The Sub?"

* * *

"This place is so... _welcoming_," I noted, observing the cream colored walls and small paintings hung around the walls. The smell of fresh bread filled my nostrils. I had to keep myself from inhaling it too much; the scent was so strong. I scanned the condiments and fillings in the buckets behind the counter. Pepperoni. Ham. Turkey. Ranch. Mayonnaise. Mustard. "We never had anything like this back home."

I felt a small pang of home sickness for Kennedy, but I brushed it away. That was the past. This was my new life now.

"What was it like back in Atlanta?" she asked, taking a quick pause from our conversation to tell the cashier her order. "Footlong, wheat bread, turkey on rye, heavy on the mayonnaise." She turned back to me.

"It was definitely smaller. More quaint, in a way," I replied. I looked up at the cashier, telling him my order, then frowned when he shot me a wink. Ew.

"That sounds nice," Trish said, and I followed her to a table. "Everything here is so big and out in the open."

"At least you guys are near the beach, right?" I asked, sending her a smile. But she seemed to be too busy gagging on her sandwich. Someone cleared their throat and I simply took another bite of my sandwich. I was going to take another bite when Trish kicked me underneath the table.

Hard.

"Ow!" I hissed, shooting her a glare. Trish's eyes were panicking, looking at something behind me. I turned around, only to face the infamous blonde that Trish and I had been talking about earlier in her room. Oh, the irony of it all. His face was sort of turning red, and he kept fidgeting with his hands and opening and closing his mouth.

It was creeping me out.

The next move caught me off guard as he put one hand on his hip, batted his eyelashes, and smiled. "Hey girl!" he said in a high voice. I blinked, then smiled. So _that's _what was eating him up inside. It must be difficult to hide your true colors from everyone. My heart instantly went out to him.

"Hi," I replied cheerfully. "Did you want to join us?"

His smile faltered a bit, and he turned to his red head friend, who was currently undergoing a state of shock. He snapped out of it and got up to join Austin. "We would love that, right Austin?" the red head asked, nudging Austin in the ribs. Austin flicked his hair and laughed.

"Of course!" he exclaimed. Trish seemed to be in some sort of daze, moving to the side to make room for Austin and his friend. "Hopefully I didn't intrude anything."

I patted him on the arm and watched his ears turn pink. "You're fine," I reassured.

"I didn't know you were gay," Trish blurted out. An awkward silence hovered in the air as Austin shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Poor guy. He must've felt so alone. I shot Trish a look and she shrank back in her seat a bit. I gave Austin an apologetic smile.

"It's okay. You can tell us," I said softly. "Your secret's safe here."

Austin and Dez looked at one another.

A piece of the puzzle clicked. "Are you guys together?" I asked.

"Noooo!" the two yelled simultaneously, causing the cashier to shoot us a dirty look. Austin smiled innocently.

"He's just a friend," Austin explained, crossing his legs. "_Totally_ not my type. No offense Dez."

"None taken," Dez replied, sipping on his soda.

"No one really knows," Austin continued, sighing. "So is it alright if you, um, keep this on the down low?"

Trish and I nodded. "Of course," we said.

"Our lips are sealed," Trish said, smiling. "Do your parents know?"

He shook his head. I frowned. Clearly he needed a friend. Here I thought he was some cocky jock, but really he was just misunderstood. That would explain the total break down. I suddenly felt the need to be there for him, to make sure that he felt comfortable and in his own skin. It must feel so tiring to pretend to be some macho baseball star.

He needed some cheering up. An idea popped into my head, and before I could stop myself, I asked:

"How would you like to go to a party on Friday?"

* * *

_**Okay. Yes, this is completely different from my story Just Another Cliche, isn't it? Ha ha, but I hope you guys enjoyed that little twist. What do you guys think will happen at Jared's party? Again, just a reminder that this story isn't meant to offend anyone or cause anything. Thanks for always supporting and leaving such awesome reviews! Feel free to leave one, a **__**review,**__** I mean! You can also **__**tweet**__** me if you wish. Hope you guys are all enjoying your Winter break! **_


End file.
